Business for Creatives (Tiny Moves, Big Results)

This one’s for the creatives who feel like business is the part they’re “not good at.”

In this episode, I’m sharing what finally clicked for me after years of thinking I had to be more “corporate” to be taken seriously. Spoiler: I was wrong. Business isn’t about becoming someone else—it’s about learning how to stay you, consistently.

From boundaries and money rhythms to better client questions and less chaos—I’ll walk you through 10 tiny moves that can lead to big results. The kind that makes you feel steady, respected, and creatively free.

🖤 Want to dive deeper or explore the tools I mentioned? Head to the show notes: https://kunshuis.com/business-for-creatives-tiny-moves-big-results/

Thanks for listening to BEYOND Design ✨

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Website & Resources → kunshuis.com
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Show notes & blogs → kunshuis.com/blog

Free support for creatives:

• 21-Day Creative Reset Challenge
• Download: Asking Better Questions (Client Guide)
  
  

🖤 My favourite tools for life + business:

• The Playbook Planner
  — your creative sidekick for focus + flow
• The Playbook Desk
  — a Notion-powered space to run your freelance business with ease

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Can I say something a bit unpopular about business? It doesn't have to be stiff or overwhelming or soul sucking spreadsheets, and you don't have to become more corporate to be taken seriously. To be good at business, I thought I had to put on a fake professional face, dress the part, and almost hide the creative part of myself. But the truth? Business is just how your creativity reaches people and you getting paid fairly for it. That's it. So today I want to talk to you about the tiny moves in your business. The kind that lead to big results. Whether you're freelancing, working at an agency or in-house, this will apply to you. Because business isn't a separate part of your life as a creative. It is the life. It is how you support yourself, it's how you communicate how you work and stick to it. It's how you protect your time. It's how you make space for joy, rest and growth, and how you allow yourself the opportunity to be a constant learner because things change daily. Ten easy business moves you can do this week. Number one, your one line why. This is your filter, the reason through which everything has to flow. It's kind of your anchor. It helps you choose the right work, not just any work. Ask yourself, what is the reason that you're doing what you're doing? For example, mine is I want to live a life my way, on my terms. I don't want to ask for permission to do the things that are important to me and my husband. I want to have enough money to live life our way. And that's how I say yes or no to jobs. Does the timeline of this project support my why? Will this client respect my time? If not, it is a very respectful no. So I would suggest writing down your one-liner or your paragraph, stick it on your wall, use it to say yes or no. Number two. Results not just pretty. Design these days, especially graphic design, is not decoration. It's solving problems, it's communication, and communication drives results. Start tying your work to outcomes. I know designers, this is the scary part, we tend to be very personally involved emotionally about our work. But this is important for you to understand. Your work needs to be able to reach a goal for your customer. Either recognition, sales, or make a business, product or service better. So next time, take a big deep breath and ask the question afterwards. Did you see improvement, growth, or sales? I would love to know where I can help again or where I can improve on the work so that we can grow your business forward. That way you'll always be seen as part of the business, not just a service provider, but as an asset that wants to help the client grow. And that's consistent business right there. Okay, number three. Ask better questions with confidence. Here's something I wish someone had told me earlier on. Your questions aren't a problem, they're part of the process. For so long I held back. I didn't want to seem difficult or make a client uncomfortable. I thought being nice meant silent. But here's the thing. Silence creates chaos. Assumptions happen, misunderstandings creep in, and you end up fixing things that should have been clear from the start. Asking better questions is how you protect your energy, your time and your creativity. It's also how you show up as a business partner, not just as a pair of hands. So ask, what is the real goal? What would success look like here? What's the non-negotiable and what is flexible? How do you want people to feel when they see this? These aren't the extra steps. This is the work. And if you're thinking, but I never know what to ask, don't stress about this. Grab my free ask better questions guide in the show notes. It's packed with prompts, questions, and soft scripts so you can copy and paste and make it your own. Because clarity isn't cold, it's kind. And confidence, it grows every time you use your voice. Number four. Boundaries in plain language. Okay, let's talk about boundaries. Not the dramatic kind that kind of needs a whole day talk. Just a simple, soft but solid way of saying this is how I work. Because burnout doesn't start with big moments, it starts with blurry ones, like agreeing to just one more quick revision, or replying to emails at 10 PM when your brainer has gone to sleep, or letting scope creep sneak in dressed as just a small tweak. Here's what I've learned and sometimes had to relearn. Boundaries are not barriers. They're invitations for people to respect your rhythm. And they don't need to be harsh or robotic. Try something like this includes two revision rounds, happy to do more at my hourly rate, just let me know. Or I'm offline after 4 pm, but I'll respond first thing in the morning. Another example, this design includes layout and delivery. Copywriting would be an extra add-on if you'd like. See, it's clear, it's calm, and it's kind. No drama, no overexplaining, no guilt. The bonus here is clients actually feel safer when you lead with clarity. And if the word boundary still feels a little bit heavy, try replacing it with how I work. It softens the tone but keeps the power. So this week, tiny move I would like to give you is pick one area where you feel you've been too flexible for too long. Write a softer, stronger version of how you'd actually like that to go. Practice saying it out loud. Pop it into your email templates or contracts. You'll be amazed at how much energy it saves and how much more respect you receive. You're allowed to protect your creativity. You're allowed to be kind and clear at the same time. That's not being difficult, that's being professional. Number five, the daily top three. Overwhelm is just too many tabs open, mentally and literally. So an idea for you today is pick one client task, one marketing or internal task you'd like to do for yourself, and one admin or finance task. And that's your day. And a bonus tip here for you would be to organize your space. You will be amazed at how energized, excited, and clear-minded you'll feel when your desktop, table or room has breathing space. Remember, a cluttered space equals a cluttered mind. And in the Graphic Designers Playbook Planner, at the beginning of each week, I have a checklist to organize your space and mind so that you have clarity to do what you love, which is design. Number six, money. So money equals creative safety. You don't need to become an accountant, but you do need rhythm. I call it like the money date. 15 minutes a week to quote, invoice, follow up, and file. So to give an example, my money date was I invoice at the end of each month. And then the day after I invoiced, I would go shopping or watch movies and just take my day off. So it was like a date with myself. It was like my pat on the back for a month of great work and a high five for doing my admin. So that's my money date. I encourage you to try it, do your admin, it makes you feel in control and you will feel more confident. I I promise you this. So schedule your money date, take your playbook planner and write it in and do it. You will feel much, much lighter. Number seven, follow up isn't pushy, it's respectful. Silence doesn't always mean no, it often means busy. I hear designers say, I sent the quote or artwork and now nothing. And I would always ask, did you follow up? And they would say no why. Client X knows what to do. Listen, clients are like children. You have to talk and guide them consistently until it really sinks in, until it becomes a habit. Otherwise, just like children, they will go stray. They will forget what to do or not to do. So be consistent and clear, but always with respect and softness. Don't just assume your clients know. Just like you don't know how their business works, they don't know how your job is done. The only way to close the gap is communication and consistently with professional, respectful manners, without emotion or ego. Don't assume they know because 99% they don't, and you know what they say about assumptions. It's a mother all F ups. So follow up and keep your communication always open. Number eight. Present your work like a story. Show your thinking, not just the final design. For example, tell them, this is the goal, this is the insight, here's the concept, why this will work and what is next. So back when we started, we did like just a logo, if a client wanted a logo, but we'll present between 10 and 17 logos in one PDF with no explanation, just page upon page with a logo in the middle, and then the client would come back and say, okay, I like option one, six, and eight. Can you combine them? And then the back and forth would go on in revisions upon revisions. And I can hear some of you laughing right now, asking, like, really? What? But yes, that's how we worked. That's how we were taught. That's how the industry worked. There were no strategy for designers. Strategy was used for media and business people. We didn't do mock-ups or how the logo can be used in reality. We didn't have websites that had mock-up templates. So we just sent logos. But because of that, I started showing with mock-ups. I showed my thought process, I explained and showed it in a beautifully designed document. This changed the game for me. The client is nodding your head. They can't see 3D or visually what you mean. Images, sell a design or an idea. As an added bonus, if you want my proposal document, the one that I use for my presentations, it is part of the playbook desk on my online shop. I made it for you in Canva and Illustrator. It changed the game. Less revisions, more satisfied clients and better referrals, consistent clients. So show your work, show your process. Number nine. After care equals future clients. So 30 days after the project, follow up. Not to pitch, just to really care. Hi, how are you doing? Anything you need? For example, I would design brands. The logo, business card, email signature and then see car branding in my branding design all over the town. And then when I asked the client why they didn't ask me to do it, they would say they didn't know that I'd do that. So stay in communication with your customer. Ask them weekly or by monthly if they need anything and list what you can do to help them. If it is extra social media graphics or a website or an annual report, this way you will develop a relationship with that client and you will ensure consistent work coming your way. Again, do not assume they know what you do. Showing interest in them builds trust and ensure referrals. Number 10. The Friday Look Back. So every Friday, take five minutes. Ask yourself, what gave me energy this week? What drained me? And then adjust. This is how we design our business week by week. Alright, before we wrap up, I want to give you one more thing. Because let's be honest, we don't always know what to say in the moment, especially when things feel awkward or unclear, like this wasn't included or the invoice hasn't been paid. So in the show notes, I have a few scripts for you that you can copy and paste, a little bit of guidance if you don't know what to say. Keep these handy, save them in your notes app, use them as is or make them your own. If you want more scripts, in the playbook desk I've added a whole section of ready to use email templates written exactly for creatives like you. For client delays and project boundaries to saying no with grace, it's all there. You don't have to wing it anymore. You you've got the tools, you've got the voice, and now you've got the words. So friend, this is what I've learned. You don't need a fancy system or more degrees or to speak like a corporate. You just need tiny steady moves on repeat, clear goals, kind boundaries, simple habits. Better questions. I will share my guide, the graphic designer's guide to better questions in this show notes. This is a game changer. Here's what I want you to do this week. Pick just two moves from this episode. That is it. Start small. Then repeat next week. You're not behind, you're finding your way. Thanks for being here. You're not alone in this. I hope this episode gives you a bit of quiet confidence. It is easier than you think. Design your life wherever you are. Talk next time. Bye.